His Peasant Wife : Yao Ling

The old woman glared at her. "Who are you? My mistress is 'Qin Fu' Young Lady. You should be polite to her!" She didn't even politely greet Yao Ling, but instead, behaved arrogantly.

Yao Ling glanced at the old woman, squinting her eyes in disdain. What made her so arrogant? She had heard about 'Qin Fu'. It was a second branch from one of the noble clans in the capital. Their main branch was at the same level with 'Wang Fu', however, this one was only the second branch. She felt lucky she had heard about this from Zhang Mo Mo. She didn't only tell her etiquette, but also told her about the various noble families in Shu Kingdom – just in case, she met one of them.

"Ah… 'Qin Fu' Young Lady. How may I help you?" Yao Ling didn't want to start a fight, after all, they were 'Fu Rong' customers. Even though she was unsatisfied, she had to mask her feeling with a smile.

The young lady looked surprised with Yao Ling's calmness. She just saw the previous scene between her and this young lady's husband, but she didn't even bat eyelashes. Were they really a married couple? She answered with the face full of grievance and crocodile tears, "I come here to check on 'Qin Fu' orders on the behalf of my grandmother. We gave the orders to 'Fu Rong' because of your reputation, but how come you make such a big mistake?"

Yao Ying felt a headache started to brew in his head. He hated this kind of woman the most. Her face was always full of grievance like she was the victim all the time, not to mention the tears that kept dripping on her face. However, a customer is still a customer. Customers are the king. He could do nothing about it. He had been trying to appease her for the last half shichen [1].

The most annoying part was when she fell on top of him. He saw how the shrew old mo mo was actually pushing the girl on purpose. Did they think all the people in this world were stupid? Such a cheap trick was even used. Yao Ying just didn't want Yao Ling to have any misunderstanding.

Yao Ying whispered to Yao Ling, "Please handle this matter for me! They are both very difficult person to deal with, especially the annoying low-quality acting."

Although she was angry, Yao Ling also understood that it was an inconvenience for Yao Ying to handle this. Both of them seemed to have a bad intention and she didn't want them to ruin her marriage too. Yao Ling whispered back, "Just wait until tonight!"

What Yao Ling meant was punishment but in Yao Ying's mind… it had a different meaning. He beamed at her, "I'll wait for it!" After saying that, he turned to the customers, "My wife will handle the rest." Without saying another word, he turned around and sat on his personal desk. He didn't leave, after all, he wanted to have fun and watch how his little wife would handle this case.

Yao Ling could see his lazy attitude and it made her want to kick his feet. Did he see this trouble as some kind of enjoyment? She decided to pay him no mind and back at handling this matter. Just like what she had said, he should wait for his punishment tonight.

Before Yao Ling could answer the young lady's question, the old woman didn't seem to want to stop looking for trouble anytime soon. She appeared to hate the way Yao Ying behaved with his indifferent attitude, after his wife came. "You… You… You have to take responsibilities of my young miss!"

Yao Ying -who was being pointed at- raised one of his eyebrows. "Oh… Why should I?"

Yao Ling looked at both of the women's expression. One looked so bashful while gripping and twisting her handkerchief tightly. The other one was trying to have Yao Ying to take responsibilities with a smug expression. She looked at her husband face. His heavenly face looked so handsome with his lazy appearance. Indeed, he's very attractive. No wonder other women still tried to gain his attention and snatch him away from her.

She furrowed her eyebrows. When and where did this young lady see Yao Ying? This kind of admiration and plan wouldn't be done in such a short of time. How annoying!

The old woman answered Yao Ying with a loud voice, "You just touch my young lady's body."

Yao Ling understood that with her loud voice, this old woman wanted to find as many spectacles as possible to gain sympathy. She turned to Xiao Yu and whispered, "Go downstairs and prevent anyone to go upstairs. If the woman's voice is too loud and gains some attention, you should go and distract them!"

Xiao Yu nodded in understanding and quickly went downstairs. Fortunately, the previous talking wasn't done in a loud voice. At downstairs, Xiao Yu could see some people seemed to hear the last part and it piqued their curiosity. She cleverly gave a signal to other shopkeepers. They quickly served each one of the curious customers and led them away from the stairs, then Xiao Yu decided to guard the stairs.

Back to Yao Ying's office, the old woman still waited for Yao Ying's reply. However, the only expression she got from the young man was only indifference. She felt panicked. This wasn't supposed to happen! Her young lady was known to be quite a beauty and this young man was supposed to be entranced by her!

She actually didn't like the idea of throwing her young miss to a man's arm. However, her young miss said that she had already set her heart to this young man. It was love at first sight and it became the wishful dream of her young miss' heart. If her young miss didn't beg and cry to her all the time, she wouldn't think of this plan! She felt a headache because of it. This young man used to be only a peasant, why did her young miss regard him that highly?

Yao Ying and Yao Ling could see the conflicted expression on the old woman's face. Yao Ying snickered and said, "How can you say that your young lady was touched by me? She was the one who threw herself at me just now." Yao Ying knew that Xiao Yu already guarded the stairs, so he didn't want to give them any face. He just wanted to put them on their place.

The young girl's face paled. She didn't think that this beautiful man -who kept haunting her dream- wasn't charmed by her. She always proud of her look, but this time, she felt humiliated. She bit her lower lips in distress, "How can you say that, Yao Ying gong zi?" Then she turned to Yao Ling, "Mei mei, just now… didn't you also see how I was on top of him?"

"Mei mei? Young Lady, I don't even know your name. We are not that familiar. How could you call me mei mei?" Yao Ling put a boundary between them. They weren't close to each other and yet… she tried to gain her pity. Was she crazy? Who would want to get closer with a fox who wanted to take her husband away? Tsk! She wasn't that nice.

***

[1]. Half shichen is approximately one hour in modern time.